Shortly into Act 1, I believe I'm suppose to just free roam and pirate stuff, trouble is, it's hard to find places/people to target.

Corporate freighters would be the appropriate targets but I seem to encounter non-corporate groups only.

I've been to the spots suggested by the Stepsons, but again, few corporate ships to be found.
Or am I suppose to just pirate from anyone and everyone?

Thanks dude!

Join formation with targets did not occur to me, I think that will be my main ticket.

I have got the Jaf's mod, although I've so far not had a catch larger than 2 pods, haha.

Well, following the convoys wasn't as effective as I had imagined. They usually end up going to another station to unload or go to policed L-point.
Maybe I should try launching LSDi's while they're in transit...

However, I got lucky on the first try, following a Maas freighter loaded with military goods, which flew to the junkyard and was instantly set upon by a bunch of other ships. All I had to do with pick up the pods. ^.^

I also made an utter failure of an attempt at pirating within station grounds. There was a freighter chocked with processed foods sitting there unguarded. Temptation took over and I started firing, unsurprisingly, dudes came after me, but only 2 tugs, which were easily dispatched. What I wasn't expecting was a CRUISER, with a full wing of escorts. I had no choice but to run and leave all the that delicious processed food behind (which I need, to get a second missile launcher) =(

A good thing to watch out for is megafreighters jumping in at lagrange points. They have a tendency to wipe-out other freighters because they're so big and unwieldy. A single accident can leave dozens of juicy pods lying around, which makes them risk-free salvage.

Heh - I forgot about that one. The fighter escorts tend to jump through at high speed and end up crashing into the slow-moving mega freighters that clog up the entry point. That little impact will usually take out the mega freighter. If the megapods don't open on their own, shoot at them until they pop open and spill the goods.

Once you get into the main part of the game, you'll get many random encounters that can net you a bunch of fairly average cargo.

Update, after reloading, replaying, and refreshing my memory:

- You can't use F7 (Formate) to follow ships through an L-point, unless it's scripted as part of a mission. Later on, you'll get an add-on that will tell you where the ship jumped to, and you can then quickly use the Nav menu to follow the vessel to its destination.

- RE: Cruiser showed up. Yeah, you'll get around certain planets. This happens if there is a system security station belonging to the same group from which you've just targeted a vessel. In other words, if you go to a Maas depot for pirating and there is also a Maas security station orbiting the planet, then the security ships will be there shortly to mess you up. I don't think SOLAN cares if you pirate Maas ships, so they won't show up to protect Maas cargo and vice versa.

- You don't have to wait for Jafs to do his thing in order to get the loot. If you hang around, you'll find it can take a few minutes for all the stuff to get loaded. But if you zip out to another waypoint after pressing 'J' to call Jafs, you'll get the credit within maybe ten seconds of leaving the area. Note that this can also prevent the loss of Jafs (I don't know if he can actually die in the game, but still): Suppose you called Jafs to pick up some cargo but a large force of enemy ships show up and they're too much for you to handle. LDS away (you can use manual LDS for this) and Jafs will get away clean and you'll get the cargo. The downside to doing this is if there is more cargo than Jafs can take in one trip - those extra pods probably won't be there when you come back.

- There's an e-mail early in the game suggesting the Blackeye L-point in Hoffer's Wake as a good place to liberate some pods. A short bit into the game, this one happens to get some (trying not to spoiler-ize this) bad guy traffic coming through on a regular basis. The good news is that there is also a lot of other traffic so either the bad guys will shoot up the indies and cargo pods will be cut loose, or the bad guys will have their own freighters you can pirate with virtually no consequence beyond starting a fight with those ships. With the other traffic at that L-point, odds are you'll get some help fighting. They bad guys carry some 'better' value cargo.

- Speaking of cargo value, rarity seems to be more important than the price you read in the pod details. The game doesn't care about price when it comes to getting the ship upgrades you need. I've seen some sweet items being offered for trade, and only asking for stuff like t-form bacteria or processed food in return. Other items are tough to find so it can be difficult to find that cargo needed for a trade - it took me forever to get the jewelry needed for a Quadpack Launcher this playthrough. I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if it's a 1000C or 8000C cargo - if you need it for a trade, then it's priceless. Hopefully they aren't looking for unicorn horns or something equally obscure.

I know this is already solved but I'll add my two cents for anyone looking at this down the line for advice on piracy.

In Act I the thing that will trigger your next mission is a set value of cargo acquired. This is one of two or three times tops that the VALUE listed on your cargo scanner matters at all.

I don't remember exactly what the value is...something like 20-25k worth of cargo stolen. Then you'll trigger the remainder of the Act 1 missions.

One other time you'll get asked to bring a "juicy piece of cargo" to a guy in exchange for something. Juicy in this case means value of over 5000.

Be VERY selective what you give out. In every playthrough I've ever done the trades are always the same...and here are the ones I consistently have the hardest time acquiring, which you should never give up, recycle or use for anything except for good trades in Acts 2 and 3.

Station Components
Sporting Goods (you need 4 of these to get 2 cutting beams...trust me you want those for the Act 2 finale...makes that mission a cake walk)
Jewelery
Antimatter goods


There are a few others that are not rare but you need in large quantities for trades:

Medical supplies
processed foodstuffs
hydrocarbons


Foodstuffs is never something you should have trouble finding. It's everywhere. By the middle of Act 2, believe me you'll be skipping entire juicy freighters because the cargo is all food and not worth the bullets.

Sporting goods are the ones I value most personally. You need them for the cutting beams, but a couple other trades will ask for them as well...pass on those...they're pretty rare. I think only a couple of items qualify under that category. Tennis Equipment and Body Armour are the two most common.

The best place to pirate, in my opinion is at independent transfer stations or L-points. If you want to pirate corporate ships, fly to the nearest L-point to their base and hang around, they all come through there.